Staff Reporter :
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday alleged that the government has violated human rights by keeping former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia in an abandoned prison.
“Our National Constitution clearly states that no citizen can be kept in a solitary confinement ever. But the government has violated human rights by keeping Khaleda Zia isolated from any human contact and sending her in a long abandoned building,” he said while addressing the party men in a sit-in programme in front of its Nayapaltan office.
Demanding Khaleda Zia’s immediate release from jail, he said, “We will free our leader Begum Khaleda Zia through agitations of the people of Bangladesh.”
“The incumbent government is an illegal one and the ruling quarter must be tried for violating the rights of Khaleda Zia,” Fakhrul said.
A special court of Dhaka has given the BNP chief five years jail in a graft case on Thursday. The huge gathering of BNP leaders and activists turned the one-hour long sit-in programme like a public meeting.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Standing Committee Members Dr. Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, Barrister Moudud Ahmed, Mirza Abbas, Nazrul Islam Khan, Vice-Chairmen Advocate Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, Dr. AZM Zahid Hossain and Abdul Awal Mintoo, among with other leaders joined the programme.
Several leaders from BNP led-20 party alliance also joined the sit-in programme. Started at 11:00am, the sit-in programme ended at 12.0o noon.
The BNP will observe a token hunger strike nationwide today (Wednesday) for demanding release of Khaleda Zia.
The leaders and activists chanted different slogans such as ‘Why Khaleda kept is in jail?’ ‘Our leader, our mother cannot be kept in jail for long’, ‘We will not give up movement without release of our leader’.
Mirza Fakhrul asked the leaders and activists to strengthen the on-going movement to bring Khaleda Zia out of jail and restoration of democracy in the country.
He said no one can keep any popular leader in prison for long. This government also must be failed to keep Khaleda Zia in jail for a long time.
He also vowed to make Khaleda Zia free soon and the government cannot hold national polls keeping her in jail.
BNP Senior Joint-Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi alleged that police arrested more than 4,550 party men from across the country till Tuesday.
He made the allegation while addressing a press briefing at BNP’s Nayapaltan office yesterday.
He claimed that around 150 leaders and activists were arrested from Tuesday’s sit-in programme from Dhaka and different other districts.
